Can States Bar Sex Changes 4 Minors?

Somehow the federal gov’t has decided an unborn baby hasn’t a right to life, but living minors have the same rights as adults to change sexes? Consider how DOJ is now arguing the Constitution doesn’t let states deny teens transgender treatments.

The WSJ editorial board called out the feds’ “sophistry” in arguing before the High Court on Wednesday that Tennessee’s law barring sex changes discriminates by sex & transgender status, thereby violating the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the laws. The key, the DOJ lawyers are urging, is that this state’s law – and nearly 2 dozen states like it – impermissibly depends on the patient’s sex, that is, “a teenager whose sex assigned at birth is male can be prescribed testosterone to conform to a male gender identity, but a teen assigned female at birth cannot.” Conveniently ignored, the editors explain, is that the Tennessee law being challenged does allow minor males to have treatments for “congenital defects, disease or physical injury” but that has nothing to do with “transition,” just common sense. Concludes the WSJ: “This isn’t sex discrimination, unless the starting ideological premise is that preference is the only difference between boys & girls.”

Unfortunately, the Supremes “encouraged” this kind of legal gymnastics with its 6-3 ruling in the 2020 Bostock case, which ostensibly updated the Civil Rights Act’s ban on employment discrimination by “sex”, including “sexual orientation & gender identity.” Of course, that employment context has nothing to do with sex changes for minors but tell that to the DOJ. Or, a few other appellate courts that seem to agree with its view.

Davd Soul